Standard Lemma guide

whitefella

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

A white person (Caucasian person), especially white settler in Australia, especially a man (especially as opposed to an Aboriginal Australian).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Qualifier: chiefly Australian Aboriginal

Examples

  • 2003, transcript, in Peter McConchie (recorder), Elders: Wisdom from Australia′s Indigenous Leaders, page 18, The learning isn′t written on paper as whitefellas′ knowledge is. We carry it instead in our heads and we′re talking from our hearts, for the land. You fellas, whitefellas, put us in the back all the time, like we′ve got no language for the land. But we′ve got the true story for the land.
  • 2008, Howard Pedersen, metatextual remark, in Steve Kinnane, 5: Marda Marda: Two Bloods: Blood History, Rachel Perkins, Marcia Langton (editors), First Australians: An Illustrated History, page 148, Jandamarra was getting to know two things here. He was getting to know the magic of his own country and at the same time getting to know the whitefellas, and he was very good at knocking around with the whitefellas.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: balanda, gubbah, migaloo

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From white + fella.